EMTs, paramedics approve pact with Rural/Metro

Rural/Metro Medical Service EMTs and paramedics have voted to approve a new four-year agreement, following last week’s 21-hour negotiating session that ended a strike lasting less than eight hours.

The rank-and-file workers’ approval came in a weekend vote that ended late Sunday night, officials said.

The agreement, retroactive to July 1, affects approximately 400 EMTs and paramedics.

Brian Lawson, Rural/Metro’s public-affairs director, said the agreement provides average wage increases of 5 percent in the first year, followed by 2 percent, 3 percent and then 4 percent.

The new agreement also raises the average hourly wage of EMTs and paramedics to $14.10, with annual earnings projected to be 12 percent higher than the national average, the company stated. Vote totals were unavaialable.